In the past Brighton has been home to four major power stations, all of which have been located 6.5 Kilometres from Brighton Hippodrome which is the site of choice. Despite the new green agenda that Brighton has chosen to adopt in 2011 with the empowerment of the green party, the current power station continues to emit harmful toxins into the air by using non-renewable forms of energy production. This project aims to correct the most major issue in the green party’s agenda by constructing a waste to power station in the city of Brighton.
Brighton Hippodrome is located on a busy high street which is surrounded by a mixture of social typologies such as shops, clubs, pubs, and restaurants. This creates an opportunity for the project to have greater exposure to the public and become a social condenser by altering the perceived social hierarchies within the scheme. By adopting this typology on a site so central in a city, forced engagement is created. The architecture houses an open façade with a central courtyard enticing people to pass through the structure from one high street to another. During this forced engagement, the public is lead past an open debating chamber, housing all the city’s main debates, and a mycelium curing chamber. Overhead is a large undulating mycelium membrane with conveyor belts spanning across large opening carrying waste through the building for processing. By having these elements of the design on display, the amount of waste and power that Brighton produces/consumes is bought to the forefront of people’s minds.
What was once the auditorium of the Brighton Hippodrome has now become a debating chamber to address the key issues within Brighton. The chamber will house a “Tipping Bucket” that will gradually fill with waste before dropping it into the pit below the chamber every 60 minutes. This concept aims to remind the council members and public who are debating how much waste is produced every hour.